Cutting Coupons—Sanity and Peace

By Kellene, Preparedness Pro on 8 June 2009 - 9:36am

I can’t think of a single person I know who wouldn’t love more sanity and peace in their life. But I suspect that very few of them would think of cutting coupons as a source of that sanity and peace, right?

Last Sunday at church, a guy gave a lesson to the whole congregation on financial preparedness and being financially prudent regardless of whether you’re struggling or not. His advice was timely and right on.

But today… I saw his wife in the grocery store behind me lugging around three of her four children. Now since I don’t have this experience when I go to the grocery store, I’m probably not the most sensitive as to what they were going through in this moment. So I asked her as she was putting groceries on the conveyor belt, “You’re not paying too much for those groceries, are you?” She stated that that the cereal she had just put up there was “only $2”, etc. I gave her a brief example of what cutting coupons could do, namely make her cereal that was sitting there on the belt only 50 cents. I even had a coupon for her handy that I was willing to give her so that she could do this. But alas, she told me “I don’t even have the time to think about those kinds of things.”

This isn’t about trying to get a woman to switch from her favored “Cocoa-Puffs” to generic rice puffs. This is about saving substantial amounts of money on what folks are already buying by cutting coupons.

*Heavy Sigh.* One word: disappointing. I’m certain that with her family size of 6 that she could save at LEAST $3,000 right off of her food budget every year! Can you imagine what her husband, who’s an investor, could do with that extra $3,000? Do you realize that I’ve spoken with countless household heads that have reduced their grocery budgets for their large families down to only $100 a MONTH!?! Just from cutting coupons and using some type of online service to help them know where to best use these coupons.

Cutting coupons literally brings you sanity and peace. I don’t cut coupons because I’m cheap. I cut them because I’m smart… and patriotic. More about that in a moment.

Photo by Pat Ramsey

In honor of “National Donut Day” I watched hundreds of cars stand in line at the drive thru at Krispy Kreme last Friday. Gasoline wasting away. Time being sucked up, all for a free piece of sugar and dough. Yet some say they don’t have time to SAVE precious money and to provide food storage for their home? Folks don’t have time to literally save thousands of dollars a year? If you don’t have time to save thousands of dollars a year, you better be making millions of dollars, because that’s the only way that kind of math really works out. PUH-LEEZE. It’s FREE food, folks. It’s FREE food storage. There’s not a billionaire I know that will pass up free food because they understand the value of lifesaving commodities. How do you think they got to be so wealthy in the first place?

“I guaran-dang-tee you” that if you don’t have time for emergency preparedness now, you certainly won’t have time for it when everything hits the fan.

I’m really not being judgmental here. I’m trying to point out that for so many people something so important is usually off of their radar. The ironic thing is that it’s usually not a part of their playbook for the very reasons that it SHOULD be—the kids. Yes, the kids in our life take up a lot of time and focus. But when the soccer games and the dance lessons are cancelled because of an EMP, earthquake, or financial collapse, those distractions won’t seem very important and you’ll be kicking yourself for not having the focus and foresight. Worse, because you didn’t prepare properly you may very well BECOME one of the bad guys, desperate to do anything you can to save your family. Food for thought.

In addition, if more people were to implement the method of cutting coupons to save money on what they are already buying, there would not be a barren food bank in America! Additionally, you can donate your excess coupons to military commissaries overseas. Military commissaries will a will accept manufacturer’s coupons for up to six months after the expiration date. So if you don't use your coupons, simply send them on the collection organizations and they will help the military families serving overseas. There are quite a few organizations you can hook up with to do this. Simply by going to www.ocpnet.org you can learn how to “adopt” a military base and how to mail coupons to that base. I also have a contact here in Utah for this as well: Julie Young of Brigham City, Utah will accept your coupons, categorize them, and send them on to the military. She currently sends coupons to London, Guam, Iraq and Germany.

Ms. Young is also looking for more coupons to send to stateside military families, who need current coupons, ideally those that will not expire for several months. To contact Young, you can e-mail her at [email protected] or call her answering service at 435-730-4280.

There’s a surprising need among military families actually, especially those with little babies and small children that need diapers and formula, but can't afford to buy them. Meat, detergents, milk, juices, canned vegetables and fruits are the most expensive items. Any coupons in those categories are the most requested by my military wives.

Cutting coupons not only can save your family a significant amount of money while stocking your food storage shelves, but it can also be a very patriotic act as well! So, start cutting your coupons. The sanity and peace can literally be worth the life of your family.

For any questions or comments on this article, please leave a comment on the blog site so that everyone can benefit!

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Comments

I'm so glad to hear yet another "testimonial" about coupons. I"m about to leave for an hour or two and have projected that I'll bring home about $100 worth of groceries for about $3 plus tax thanks to coupons!

I wholeheartedly agree that I get a LOT of healthy stuff with my coupons. In fact, I don't use coupons for anything that I wouldn't otherwise enjoy. Yeah, we have our snacks periodically, but I eat good, balanced meals. Way to go, Momma!

Indeed. Last night I took a gal with me who had never gone before to show her what I did. She attempted to leave the house with a baggie full of coupons. I told her that I'd rather see her in a tube top and a mini skirt than be seen with her with a baggie full of coupons. :-)

Ok. Here's just an example. Keep in mind that I don't like eating junk. But I sure do like saving money. So, let me take a few things on your list and share with you what I've done recently.
Chicken- just got it for 59 cents a pound, plus got a free ham for buying so much.
Beef- Just got it for 99 cents a pound plus got a free package of hamburger buns.
Pork chops- just paid 79 cents a pound. (All of these meat savings are about 70% off of the normal price)
Pasta- just got 10 pounds of pasta for 25 cents each, including a pack of wheat pasta.
Bell peppers- I figured that it costs me much less for freeze dried bell peppers that I would use in omlets and casseroles than it does for the fresh. So I just bought a #10 can of diced red and green bell peppers that is guaranteed to last me 18 months and tastes wonderful and full of the same nutrition as fresh.
Onions- Just got 3 bags of frozen onions for FREE.
Potatoes. Just got 5 pounds of red potatoes for $1.
Apples- I buy the freeze dried of those when they go on sale, and I also keep an eye out for the sale and never pay more than 59 cents a pound.
Peas- Frozen, Green Giant brand, for 70 cents.
Milk, I buy a yummy powdered which averages $1.27 a gal. and sometimes get it fresh for $1.67 a gal. Also, a lot of times the money that I'm saving on other items has overage which goes towards my milk purchase.
Cereal...just got 5 boxes of BRAND name cereal-healthy- for 49 cents each. Go to savvyshopperdeals.com and watch the tutorial.

That may be due to the types of stores I have in my area. I have several followers who have found local slaughterhouses that they get their meat from for VERY good prices and without all of the hormones and garbage in the meat. I do find meat coupons for Albertsons and Smith's/Kroger sometimes but usually I find a lot of the deals in the store. Also, Costco can get pretty darn low on their chicken prices at times, even boneless/skinless breasts. Remember to take advantage of a meat sale and then can the meat. It's YUMMY and ensures you're ALWAYS getting a good deal on meat at every meal.
GOOD LUCK!

Watched the video, good stuff, I am going to give it a go. Where do you get meat coupons, I have never seen them in the sunday paper... I usually by the stuff that is close to expiring or in club packs so the price per pound is much less. but I still dont get anywhere near <1.00/lb. thanks for the info.

By the way, you're actually spending MORE money by planning a weekly menu. Just because it's on your menu doesn't mean you will find it on sale. What I do is plan my menu based on what I have in my pantry and in surplus. That way every meal I have is "CHEAP" or on sale. It takes a little bit of time to build this up, but it DOES indeed happen. For example, tonight we're having barbequed chicken (made in the pressure cooker), frozen green beans, mashed potatoes, and jarred peaches. The total price I paid for this meal is less than $3!

I have been using coupons for awhile now. I went to the store this weekend and saved over $50. I got 5 bottles of Kraft Bq sauce for free! I got A1 sauce for 98 cents. I got 2 tubs of Cool Whip Free for $1.00.

when i started couponing, i cut our monthly expenses by $1500/month AND we had more to show for it. you can pay off some serious debt with that kind of change in your expenses. it IS possible to do with kids in tow, it just takes planning and patience.

people have a perception that couponing means you eat a lot of processed foods and unhealthy stuff. um, no. we eat healthy. if we eat junk, it's by choice, not because of coupons.

I coupon with three kids. I started about 2 years ago. If you coupon with children, you will make more mistakes (I homeschool so don't have daytime to shop alone). You forget to get the item, or give the coupon, etc. Especially when you try to do the store's more complicated deals. At first these mistakes frustrated me b/c of all the work and missed savings. But you just have to chalk the loss up to shopping with kids. The savings are still worth the effort. You just have to be very prepared when you enter the store.

When you want your shopping wizard to print, not only do you need to click to print it, but when it comes up in a separate window, you need to click to print that window too. (I discovered that the hard way.) Also, I had problems setting up an account initially as well. Just e-mail "Amy" on the home page and tell her you're having some difficulty. Take care!